MANILA, Philippines – It did not take long for Alex Eala and world No. 3 Coco Gauff to learn to function like a well-oiled unit.
In their first team-up, the 19-year-old Eala and the 21-year-old Gauff played beautiful music together, prevailing over Alexandra Panova of Russia and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday, May 10, in the opening round of the doubles competition of the WTA 1000 Italian Open.
Although Eala is slowly establishing a name for herself in the WTA circuit and Gauff is one of the game’s established superstars, their individual brilliance did not guarantee a formidable partnership, especially as they were up against a pair who plays doubles exclusively in the WTA Tour and had already teamed up four times in 2025.
But any concern about their chemistry was immediately answered right in the opening set where Eala and Gauff imposed their respective powerful groundstrokes on their rivals who failed to keep up.
Eala, 456th in the world in doubles, and Gauff, currently 22nd in doubles but previously ranked No. 1 in the world, immediately opened a 2-0 lead after breaking Panova’s serve.
Panova, ranked 26th in the world, and Stollar, ranked 50th, fought back with their own service break to get on the scoreboard before holding serve in the fourth game to draw even at 2-2.
But Eala and Gauff quickly regained control of the set, stringing together wins in the next three games to go up 5-2 as they broke Panova for the second time.
Stollar managed to hold serve in the eighth game, but it was nothing more than a temporary respite for the Russian and Hungarian duo, with Eala and Gauff finishing the set in the ninth game on the American’s serve.
The second set started with both pairs holding serve. Then just like in the first set, the separation happened in the third game.
With the score tied at 40-40, Eala hit a passing shot down the line which blazed past a stunned Stollar, enabling the Filipina and American tandem to break Panova a third time in the match.
There would be no more chances for the Russian and the Hungarian to score after, with Eala and Gauff sweeping the next four games to finish the match in exactly an hour.
The road ahead will get tougher for Eala and Gauff as they could potentially face seventh seeds Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Irina Khromacheva of Russia, who are the heavy favorites in their first-round match against wildcard local bets Tyra Grant and Lisa Pigato of Italy.
Danilina, ranked 17th in the world in doubles, and Khromacheva, ranked higher at 15th, have been playing together since 2024. They won three WTA doubles titles together last year. – Rappler.com